Boulder Library District selects Board of Trustees

Candidate interviews have taken place for the new Boulder Library District Board of Trustees as part of the process of organizing the district approved by voters last fall.

After a final round of interviews on April 20, the City of Boulder and Boulder County appointed a committee to complete the selection process of seven members of the board.

Proposition 6C was approved in the 2022 election to establish a new library district for a large portion of Boulder County, with boundaries that include Gunbarrel and parts of the Niwot area. The vote increases the tax rate for residents within the new library district at an estimated $23.80 annually per $100,000 of home value.

The proposition specified that those taxes would directly go to funding libraries for residents within the district.

Niwot residents were polled prior to the determination of the district borders as to which library they were most likely to use - the Longmont Public Library or the Boulder Public Library. When a majority of residents stated they benefited from and used the Longmont Public Library, the boundary line was drawn to exclude households north of Monarch Road and east of 79th Street.

Of the candidates who applied for a position on the Board of Trustees, eleven were interviewed for the seven positions available. Candidates were interviewed by Aaron Brockett, current mayor of the City of Boulder, councilmember Nicole Speer, of the City of Boulder, and Boulder County Commissioners Claire Levy and Marta Loachmen.

Among the candidates were Cara O'Brien, a former journalist and lawyer who lives in the foothills west of Boulder, Benita Duran, who lives on Iris Street in Boulder and has experience in project management & programming, and Joni Teter, a lawyer and leader of the Boulder Library Champions who lives on Pawnee Drive in Boulder.

"I'm a former journalist," O'Brien said. "I worked in First Amendment law for a little while. I feel really strongly about access to information and access to ideas."

O'Brien was not alone in this sentiment as other candidates felt similarly about access to information. Teter said the only reason to remove books or items were not "because of objections to content," but rather due to "staff decisions to remove materials from the collection" based on the premise that the collection needs to be "current and to keep resources focused on community needs."

Candidates were provided a total of fifteen minutes to answer questions that were provided ahead of time. Questions were based on prior experience and skill sets useful to being on the Board of Trustees for the new library district, practices and experience for inclusivity, priorities for additional funding for the new district, and how the Board of Trustees plans to "provide accountability to taxpayers for their decisions on budgetary, staffing, and service levels."

The committee reconvened on April 24th to nominate and recommend appointment of candidates for the board of trustees by length of seat. Five-year seats were assigned to Jennifer Yee, who has experience in human resources and change management for the County Seat, and Benita Duran. Duran has experience in project management and programming as well as serving as a library commissioner for three years.

Other candidates recommended for appointment include Sylvia Wirba, who has experience working in law for a four-year seat, and Douglas Hamilton, an attorney who worked for the Library District campaign and is a military veteran for the other four-year seat; Sam Fuque, who served as president of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Directors and worked in human resources, for a two-year term; Cara O'Brien, for a three-year term; and Joni Teter for a one-year term.

All nominees for the board of trustees reside within the City of Boulder with the exception of O'Brien and Yee, who live in unincorporated Boulder County.

Final ratification of the appointments will take place on May 2 for the county and May 4 for the city.